Ink and skin, what a combo. It’s been cool since the days of five-thousand-year-old ötzi the ice man. They found his frozen body on a mountain between Austria and Italy back in 1991. He had 57 tattoos! Even the word is tasty: Tatau in Polynesian; in Tahitian, tatu. Tattoo.

There’s a play about tattoos and technology and xenophobia (something every supernatural being falls prey to) at the Berkeley Rep.

“Cameras capture images of geishas, monks and shrines and send them to the future in a flash—where we continue to seek meaning through lenses of exoticism and xenophobia. The intricate parts of this world premiere nestle together like a delicate puzzle … or erotic glimpses of an enigmatic tattoo.”

Written by Naomi Iizuka and directed by Les Waters Concerning Strange Devices will be playing at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley until April 11. Erotic? Enigmatic? It sounds just bizarre enough to be of interest, though I’d go for the xenophobia and the tattoos.